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Four ways to motivate event professionals

Ali Blows, head of commercial events and business development, National Theatre discusses how to motivate and connect with your event staff

According to a recent YouGov survey, just 6% of people in the UK now work 9am-5pm, favouring more flexible working patterns in turn for a better work/life balance.

However, for those working in the events industry long, unsociable hours have always been the norm. I’ve put together four ways I motivate my team to show them they are valued.

Team talks

Every Monday we get together over our morning coffee and discuss everyone’s fun weekends. We then look forward to the week ahead and chat about our focuses, plans and any concerns. This helps us all support each other to have a successful week.

Once a month we also arrange a team lunch, which can be in a restaurant or just a simple buffet in the office. It is a great opportunity for us to pause, take a deep breath and catch up as a team. We try not to talk about the stresses of the current week or discuss work.

Teambuilding

Working in an events team means that we are consistently solving problems. Teambuilding helps us to create a common vision, develop common goals and identify everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, roles and responsibilities.

At our regular teambuilding sessions, communication is open, and the sessions are matched to the needs of the team. Our team building sessions can be in the form of a meeting, flip-chart or sales figures.

Incentives

I have always valued incentives as a method of motivating a team and encouraging employees to perform at their best. It’s important to note that the incentives needn’t always be grand gestures or expensive.

An alternative is providing your staff with their birthday off work (paid) or a duvet day after a particularly big, stressful event.

Being approachable

By putting your team at ease, you enable them to think and perform at their best, which also creates an enjoyable atmosphere for your team.

Being approachable also means your team will feel comfortable about coming to you if they have a problem or new idea, which ultimately helps you build better relationships with them.